~A Message from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty~ Rob Ford and his friends on City Council are out to wipe out public services in this City and to attack the workers who deliver those services. Thousands of members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees face the threat of being locked out by the City. (This means the City would refuse to bargain for a fair contract but would instead lock the workers out from their jobs with no pay).

OCAP is an organization that works among poor communities under attack and we know what side we are on in this fight. Ford wants to sell off many services to private corporations and then cut what is left to an absolute minimum. The workers who deliver those services will not have decent wages or working conditions, if he gets his way. The City will become, instead,a low wage, sweat shop employer. This would be a huge defeat that would drive down wages all across the City and beyond and it must not be allowed to happen.

--If the City workers find themselves defending their jobs in the next short while, Ford will not hesitate to run a strikebreaking operation against them. Knowing lots of people are hurting in these tough times, he will try to recruit desperate people to cross picket lines and help him win his war against working people. Don`t fall for this and don`t play the shameful role of being a scab for Ford.

If the City workers are forced into this fight, OCAP will stand in solidarity with them. The way to fight poverty is to defend decent paying jobs and fight to raise the level of those who are presently being denied this basic right. We intend to help the City workers win, to stop all of Ford`s brutal cutbacks and to rally communities under attack to defeat him and all he stands for. Don’t cross the City workers`picket lines – join them!http://ocap.ca/node/983Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)(416) 925-6939 ocap@tao.ca